Black farmers are still fighting for equal access.
A collective of Black farmers in West Sacramento, California, is sowing seeds for a sustainable tomorrow with its a recent $1.25 million grant.
But they got help from a family of farming, racial justice and environmental groups that have come together for the love of growing food and maintaining relationships in the Sacramento area and Yolo County specifically. The family of local farms includes We Grow Farms and Brown Sugar Farm, two Black-led farms.
“It’s also us facilitating that dynamic where we can really reduce the burden of entry,” Hawkins told Spectrum News. “And really help each other out because farming in and of itself, taking land out of the situation, is not easy.”
Hawkins, recently elected to California’s Land Equity Task Force, aims to provide security from the pitfalls of exclusion and discriminatory systems. “The more we can work together, nudge each other, and educate each other—we’re stronger together.”
In recent news, Ujamaa is teaming up with pepper farmer Nathaniel Brown, owner of Brown Sugar Farm. Thanks to the grant, Brown will gain access to agricultural land and financial stability for the legacy inspired by his grandmother. He is cultivating a half-acre parcel behind his family home in Citrus Heights. It is where residents and market goers can get a taste of the farm’s unconventional crops, such as Caribbean red, striped, and fish peppers, stinging nettles, and flowers. They are all grown using a home-brewed, brown sugar-based fertilizer.
Source: Black Enterprise
